Back when the red lights of Commercial St could be seen down by the waterfront, this strip provided many provocative answers to the age-old question: what do you do with a drunken sailor? Conveniently located across Portsmouth Sq from San Francisco’s City Hall, this hot spot caught fire in 1906. The city banned its 25¢ Chinese brothels in favor of white-run ‘parlor houses, ’ where basic services were raised to $3 – watching cost $10 at the faux-French Parisian Mansion. Today that much gets you a couple of hot dishes – of dumplings, that is, at City View .
